Memory

Mistaken Facts

October 23, 2017

Sometime in the 1970s, my father shook hands with Indira Gandhi, and she told him and a whole cohort of restless young men like him that their services were needed for the greater good of Asian solidarity. Then she loaded them all onto a plane. I don’t bother anymore to ascertain the truth of this … Read More

Beyond the Border, Partition for the Rest of Us

August 15, 2017

Partition is a violent experience felt by all, not just those in the middle of the gore. Not just then, but also now. In our collective imagination, Partition always comes with its evocative word associations: the year 1947, the sundered lands of Punjab, and, sometimes, the severed halves of Bengal. The words Hyderabad and 1948 … Read More